State religious body

Official holiday

Historical information

Date established

Date dissolved

Other information

Era(s)

"This is not about your little planet. We will take your whole galaxy. We will destroy your machines; they are an abomination. We will share our ways, we will share our beliefs. We will share pain, like us, you will come to embrace it."

Contents

The empire did not technically exist until Supreme OverlordShimrra Jamaane took formal possession of the captured galactic capital of Coruscant and named it the new homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong called Yuuzhan'tar. Despite the victory achieved in taking the enemy's capital, the warrior caste had suffered horrible casualties at this point which forced them to consolidate their newly acquired territory. In order to compensate for the loss in man power, they forced a reorganization of their forces as ordered by the Supreme Overlord and placed slave troopers as well as auxiliaries to defend these positions.[1]

The head of the empire was the Supreme Overlord who was aided by the Great Council which consisted of the heads of the four castes. The Warmaster, High Prefect, and Most High Priest were known to sit on the Council. In the event of the Supreme Overlord's death, there was typically an heir present who would ascend to the leadership of the Yuuzhan Vong empire. Amongst their politics, it was considered a duty to punish insubordination of lower ranking individuals.[1] In fact, it was expected that a newly risen leader typically killed their predecessors.[3]

Local planets were ruled by the Intendant caste with Prefects administering the worlds under their command. However, a few systems were known to have been granted to select Domains. The members of the Priest caste were noted for managing ceremonies and ensure the loyalty of the masses. As events in the war progressed, they noted a disturbing rise in clandestine meetings among the lower castes such as the Shamed Ones who began to venerate the Jedi.[1]

The Yuuzhan Vong empire military consisted of the Warrior caste who led both their fleets as well as their ground forces. Support elements included the servitor race the Chazrach.[4] as well as slaves who were converted into Thralls through the use of Surge Coral.[5] There were certain elite elements within the military of the empire which included the Praetorite Vong. The warriors of the Yuuzhan Vong were noted for being brave, having little fear of death, rarely retreated and never surrendering. This made them potent warriors who were obedient; following the chain the command as well as being disciplined. However, these same strengths were also weaknesses as they rarely employed other tactics than those planned, the fact that they were obedient meant that they were not flexible and only obeyed their superiors and their bravery meant that they can be foolhardy as well as charging into situations that might require second thought.[1] This changed somewhat during the rule of Warmaster Nas Choka who began to encourage his subordinates to change their thinking and allowed them to retreat in engagements in order to preserve their forces.

Communications from outsiders that contacted a Yuuzhan Vong fleet typically spoke to the lowest ranking warrior within the fleet. If the speaker managed to convince this individual of their worth then the warrior would alert a superior of their find. Thus, the speaker would end up speaking to a higher ranking warrior and had to prove their worth once more. Through this, a person speaking to a Yuuzhan Vong fleet often had to convince their worth through the various warrior ranks. This was noted as being a tiring process but with every success, a speaker was getting closer to the commander of the fleet. It was noted that this was a way of alerting the commander of the fleet of the most worthy finds that demanded the commanding warriors attention.[6] Military analysis and communication was often handled by the yammosk war coordinators and Battle Tacticians.[7]

There were a number of different military units within the military. These included Pod Troopers who were deployed from orbit in Yorik coral shells onto a planetary environment. There were also the Yuuzhan Vong Paratroopers who dropped from ships in the atmosphere of a planet on membranous parachutes. Another aerial unit included warrior caste soldiers who were carried in the air by large Mynock sized creatures to be deployed in various locations in the battlefield.[8] There were also highly trained warriors known as Hunters that were employed by the Yuuzhan Vong for stealth attacks and tracking missions.[9] In addition, there were an elite sect of Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste called Nuun who made use of the Cloak of Nuun to camouflage themselves in their surroundings. Near the end of the war, the Yuuzhan Vong Shapers were also involved in breeding a new type of soldier called Slayers for use against their enemies.

New Republic Intelligence noted that in the initial stages of the war, that the Yuuzhan Vong possessed thousands of capital ships that traveled in flotillas of up to seventy five vessels. Amongst their ranks were warships that were the equivalent of Super Star Destroyers with firepower levels that were the equivalent of the heaviest turbolasers and ion cannons. [10]

"You err in believing that they strategize as we do when, in fact, they are waging a psychological war. The destruction of natural beauty and repositories of learning, the pursuit of refugees…such tactics are meant to confound and dishearten us. The Yuuzhan Vong are as much as saying that the civilization we have fashioned means nothing to them. All that we hold sacred is imperiled."

During the war, the Yuuzhan Vong were involved in numerous tactics that were used against the "infidels" of the galaxy. These included:

Infiltration – a favored strategy of the Yuuzhan Vong during the initial stages of the invasion, which saw the insertion of agents within enemy planets who wore Ooglith masquers to disguise their features. These individuals pretended to be members of other species while they worked to sabotage any equipment as well as intercept any messages that revealed the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong. This was effective in silencing the ExGal Society outpost on Belkadan[11] and prevent a warning to Artorias about an incoming Yuuzhan Vong armada.[12]

Information gathering – before the invasion began, the Yuuzhan Vong had began an intensive information gathering campaign which included the capture of various members of the different species who were experimented on in order to better understand them. Later, during the early part of the invasion, an information gathering campaign in order to learn more about their enemies. This led to the capture of the library world of Obroa-skai where its information was transferred into villip speech for ease of use.[7] On a more sinister basis, the commanders within the invasion forces sought to gather information on the weaknesses of the native races and learn how much pressure was needed before they were broken.[12]

Tracking – they also made use of the Dovin basalmines to record the gravitational signature of both friendly and enemy vessels for security purposes as well as to track potential threats. In addition to this, they had a history of locating displaced populations who were accepted as refugees and targeting those worlds on their list making few worlds willing in accepting such individuals.[13]

Far-reaches destabilization program – created by ExecutorNom Anor, the program involved a campaign of infiltration and subversion of various star systems in order to get the enemy to fight one another thus leaving them weakened for the warrior caste to conquer with ease. As the war continued to progress, it was noted that this tactic began to fail due to intervention from the Galactic Alliance.[6] In addition, early on in the war, the Yuuzhan Vong tried to turn the New Republic as well as its citizens against the Jedi by claiming that their invasion would halt at Duro so long as the governments of the galaxy surrendered their Jedi.[14]

Interdiction – orchestrated by Warmaster Tsavong Lah, this tactic involved the deployment of dovin basal interdiction mines along major space lanes in order to cripple the enemy's movements as well a monitor ship deployments through their gravitic signatures.[13]

Holy programs – secretly ordered by Supreme Overlord Shimrra, this project involved Shapers who were tasked with developing new organic technology in secret for use against the enemy and involved an attempt on Shaping the mind of the Jedi captive Tahiri into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior[15] as well as create anti-Jedi weapons.[9]

Resource acquisition – the Yuuzhan Vong empire made various attempts at bolstering its resources as the invasion continued; this included the establishment of a Shipwomb[16], breeding larger biots such as dovin basals[10], the seeding of planets with bio-organisms for later extraction as was the case in Hutt Space[16] as well as the capture of slaves.[6]

Communication disruption – done so near the end of the War, this plan involved deploying the newly created Mabugat kan who would trace and destroy the HoloNet stations in order to disrupt the enemies' ability to coordinate their forces.[17] However, this resulted in the enemy simply using mobile transceiver stations and prevented the Yuuzhan Vong from monitoring their communications.[5]

In addition to these, the Yuuzhan Vong made use of their various biots for specialist tactics for use against the enemy. This included the devastating Yo'gand's Core tactic, which involved dropping a moon onto the planet as well as the deployment of planetary shielding teams who inserted a dovin basal onto a planet, which stripped a world of its orbiting defenses.[18] Yuuzhan Vong interdiction vessels were also fond of waiting outside their assigned locations and suddenly appearing at them in order to ambush any vessels passing through that region of space.

After the defeat of Warmaster Tsavong Lah at the hands of Jacen Solo, the Yuuzhan Vong began a program aimed at sacrificing the Jedi in order to curry favor with the gods. This became known as the Solo Project and was an attempt by the Yuuzhan Vong to capture Jacen Solo along with his twin Jaina Solo in order to pit them against one another.[13]

The band of collaborators known as the Peace Brigade were used extensively by the empire who used them to subvert the planetary governments, provide them with information and to serve as escorts for their supply lines. They also made use of the Red Knights of Life as another supporting element in their forces.

At the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, the empire had tense relations with all its neighbors due to the fact that they were waging a holy war to cleanse the galaxy of "infidels". They believed that the galaxy or promised land was rightfully theirs, and that they owned all of known space. To that end, they attempted to educate the inhabitants in the ways of the Yuuzhan Vong and their gods. They had also noted the wide diversity of races within the Promised Land which they themselves had eliminated in their home galaxy long ago, though the act was costly and saw the destruction of countless worlds. During the invasion, they sought to destroy simply what they needed to in order to accomplish their goals. [10]

They regularly dispatched spies wearing Ooglith masquers allowing them to infiltrate galactic society and subvert it from within. In at least one operation, the Deception sect was used to deploy a bioweapon against the "Jeedai". Furthermore, as part of the far-reaches destabilization program, the Yuuzhan Vong attempted to encourage conflict between the various governments in the galaxy. This included an attempt to frame the Chiss for an attack on the Esfandiabase.

Though they made use of their own war fleets and legions, the empire also made use of bands of collaborators to support them. This included the Peace Brigade though ultimately the Yuuzhan Vong would have discarded them once they had succeeded in conquering the galaxy.

The territory of the Yuuzhan Vong consisted of the planets that were conquered during the battles before the conquest of Coruscant. This stretched from the invasion corridor starting with Vector Prime all the way from the Outer Rim down to the Core Worlds. During the later stages of the War, the Yuuzhan Vong were also making incursions into the Unknown Regions with a number of skirmishes with the Chiss government.

During the initial invasion, the Yuuzhan Vong made use of the central part of the Tingel Arm as a way of moving their forces in the direction of the Core Worlds.[10] By the latter stages of the War, the Yuuzhan Vong empire began to suffer from some of the same problems as the New Republic and its successor the Galactic Alliance. This was the fact that they had attained so much territory and resources that it was difficult to adequately protect all their space.[9]